Daniel Dvorkin @medigoth@qoto.org
Bioinformaticist / biostatistician, veteran USAF medic and Army infantryman, armchair paleontologist, occasional science fiction author, long-ago kickboxer, oldbat goth, vaccinated liberal patriot.
Joined Oct 2022
"The #squirrels are really active today."
"Yeah, they're squirreling hard out there. But you know, the other squirrels are squirreling too, and they have to squirrel their hearts out. Squirrel 110%. At the end of the day, all that matters is who has the highest squirrel."
"We're getting dangerously close to #Smurf territory here."
"I kind of imagine squirrels as real-life Smurfs. Like that's the way they think. Everything is 'squirrel this' and 'squirrel that,' and calling them 'squirrely' is the highest compliment you can give."
Pretty much every day at our house.
@arthurgessler The obvious thing to do is answer "no" to all the questions, even or perhaps especially if the project in question is the kind of thing the administration is targeting. What's Trump going to do to researchers in other countires, send the CIA after them?
@grrrr_shark Oh, that would feed *so* many conspiracy theorists.
Like "so, it has come to this" and "as the prophecy foretold," any statement can be answered with "that's just what the Freemasons *want* you to think." Just one of those little life hacks.
I have to admit, I did not have "Go Leopards! My wife didn't need that face anyway" on my bingo card.
A conversation: someone describing all the ways in which #fibromyalgia changed their life, and someone else responding with a cheery "Have you tried giving up all #FODMAPs† yet?" My reply was as follows.
"A friend with fibromyalgia calls this the 'cucumber water' question, as in 'have you tried cucumber water?' Anyone with any #chronic #illness has most likely tried anything you're likely to suggest. Unless they ask you for ideas, sympathy and support are all you should offer."
That was as civil as I could possibly be, and probably more than they deserved. I think there's at least the *possibility* of getting through in this case, which is why I didn't immediately turn green and rip my shirt off.
But having observed in detail the effects of #fibro and other #chronic #diseases on the lives of people I love—
NO. DO NOT.
===
†Fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols ... one or more of which occur in most of the meals most people eat every day. But sure, you should just drastically limit your diet because some stranger on the internet says so.
#Tyrannosaurus #rex by Gerhard Boeggemann. I like how the emphasis isn't on the size of the tyrannosaurs: they and their prey are huge, but they're still a small part of a much larger #ecosystem. Also, this could practically be a scene right out of the WISP (Work In Some Progress) so that's a bonus. 
One more time: it's very hard to detect #sarcasm #online. You may think it's obvious that you're #joking or playing a role. It's not. When other people don't know what you meant, take it as a sign to do better and move on.
And if you weren't joking, don't pretend you were. They *will* pick up on that.
My day job is all about #genes, so I applaud the #genomic revolution in #paleontology and #evolutionary #biology. But #evolution really is more than a shift in #allele frequencies over time. It's also change in the #phenotypes those alleles produce, and their #interaction with the world around them. 
So I'm equally excited about the #quantitative revolution in describing and cataloguing #traits which until recently could only be analyzed #qualitatively. There's a whole new window opening into the history of life.
I will never not be proud of this.
NB: some sources prefer to write the impact as Marsh-Cope, a.k.a. the "MC Hammer".
https://www.quora.com/Do-paleontologists-still-exist/answer/Daniel-Dvorkin-3
I still get much more interaction on #Facebook than on #Bluesky and #Mastodon combined. Hell, I get more on #Quora, despite that site's demise supposedly being imminent for years. I love the idea of everybody moving to #decentralized social media, but—
Maybe the Russkies would sell #LiveJournal cheap?
@Kierkegaanks @MeanwhileinCanada ... so far. There are European-built engines that could substitute pretty much one-for-one, as I understand it. And I guarantee *Sweden* is going to be finding a non-US supplier ASAP, so any other Gripen customers could presumably get the same.
I wonder if #Schumer was credibly threatened with window cancer.
And honestly, I kind of hope so, because otherwise he has less than no excuse.
"But remaking the JAG Corps is a priority for #Hegseth, who on Friday commissioned his personal lawyer and former naval officer Tim #Parlatore as a #Navy #Commander to oversee the effort carrying the weight and authority of the #Defense #Secretary’s office."
I see we've reached the "give the hatchetmen shiny uniforms" phase of operations.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/13/pete-hegseth-pentagon-lawyers-rules-of-war
This is really neat. I'm kind of surprised, though, that none of the students ever looked at the rock and said "those sure look like #dinosaur #tracks to me!" Or maybe they did and were roundly mocked for it: I don't claim to know anything about #Australian #highschool culture, but that's likely what would happen at a lot of #American schools. Either way, I'm glad it's finally been identified for what it is.
"Something much worse than asteroids" is hype: the late-#Devonian and end-#Ordovician were less severe that the end-#Cretaceous, which was definitely† caused by an #asteroid. But this is good work that may help nail down the cause of the earlier #extinctions ... which were still pretty bad!
†Yes.
It's the #bacteria's world, you know. Always has been. We're just the scum floating on the surface.
Maaaybe we should stop poisoning the lake.
#Antarctic #microbes reveal #climate impact on #marine #ecosystems #genomics #eDNA #global_warming #community_structure #phytoplankton #funded_by_...
Bioinformaticist / biostatistician, veteran USAF medic and Army infantryman, armchair paleontologist, occasional science fiction author, long-ago kickboxer, oldbat goth, vaccinated liberal patriot.
Joined Oct 2022
